Struggling With Life? This will Give You Hope | Jumuah Khutbah | Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi
By Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi | 2026-06-04T19:26:42.882553+00:00 | Topic: Khutbah
Guided except by Him. I bear witness and I testify that there is no God other than Allah جل جلاله and I bear witness and I testify that the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is his final Prophet and his most perfect worshipper. As to what follows, Allah عز وجل has commanded us in the Quran to be conscious of him when he says:
The Early Trials of the Prophet ﷺ
Dear Muslims, when our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم began preaching Islam in Mecca, the very first months that he was preaching Islam, stereotypes, slanders, caricatures began against him. Within the first year, physical persecution against his followers began. You are all aware of Bilal رضي الله عنه and what they did to him. You are aware of Sumayya and Yasir. You are aware of Ibn Mas'ud and others and how they were treated.
And our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was seeing all of this. His own kith and kin, his own peoples, his own fellow tribesmen whom he loved because they were family turned against him. Why? What was he doing? He was telling them to leave idolatry and worship the one God. He was telling them to be morally upright. He was telling them to not get drunk. He was telling them to give charity. His message of virtue was misinterpreted and accusations began against him. Opposition began that genuinely affected him صلى الله عليه وسلم.
The Revelation of Surah Ad-Duha
And in this early stage, he began thinking things that he should not have thought and Allah corrected because he was still a new prophet. And of those things that he thought, the very beginning of the message, he misunderstood and he said maybe, maybe my Lord doesn't like me because my message is being hated. Because of the opposition I'm getting, maybe my Lord has abandoned me. Maybe my Lord is angry at me because this hate doesn't make sense to me. So Allah revealed in the Quran a surah that we all know in which this notion was clarified.
And you know the whole surah. Your Lord has neither abandoned you nor does He hate you. No! Do not judge Allah's pleasure with you based upon the pleasure of men. The anger of men, the opposition of men does not equate to the anger of God. So this is surah Al-Duha.
Surah Ash-Sharh: The Chapter of Comfort
But after that misunderstanding was clarified, another issue happened in the heart of our Prophet ﷺ, a human emotion. An emotion that all of us feel perhaps right now. And that emotion was a sense of pain, a sense of anguish. Why is this happening? There's so much negativity. There's so much hatred. How can I overcome perhaps even a level of, we would say for our vernacular, for us, a level of depression. Like all of this evil, where is it coming from? And so you start feeling spiritually down. You start feeling a sense of chaos overwhelming you.
And so a second surah was revealed. And that will be our topic for today's khutbah. The second surah, the second chapter that was revealed was meant to calm the Prophet ﷺ down, to lift up the negativity in his heart, to make him feel positive in spite of all the negative around him. In other words, the chapter that was revealed was meant to inspire him to be optimistic, to always look at the positive no matter how negative and how pessimistic the world might appear to you.
And in this surah, Allah speaks directly in the first person to the Prophet ﷺ. And you know that's rare in the Quran. You know usually the Quran is in the third person. Usually the Quran addresses all mankind. But in this chapter, the pronouns that are used are in the singular. The Prophet ﷺ is addressed directly one-on-one. And the message is being given to him. But the message is not restricted only to him. The message is meant for all of us through him. Even though he is the one being spoken to, the message is for us. Even though it is his spirit that needs to be uplifted and it was uplifted, it is a role model for all of us when we feel down, when we feel the world is against us, when we feel a level of pessimism.
So the surah needs to be read in light of the context of its revelation. When the world gets tough, when the hatred rises, when the world causes you to think pessimistically, Allah reminds you, no, never think like this. And what was this surah? You all know it. We have learned it as children.
Let us go over every one of these verses and let us extract from it lessons that are practical for us in our daily life, especially in light of the context that we are currently undergoing right here in this very masjid.
First Verse: Spiritual Comfort
Have we not eased the pain of your chest? The Arabic phrase, شَرَحَ الصَّدْرَ can be translated into English as, to bring comfort to the soul. It's an expression, to bring comfort to the soul. Have we not comforted your soul? Have we not given you spiritual satisfaction? And Allah explicitly mentions, what does that mean to bring comfort to the soul? And that is in another verse in the Quran:
Give the example of the one whose soul was comforted via the beliefs and teachings of Islam. Before the revelation, before the prophethood, the Prophet ﷺ himself could not answer the big questions of life. Who created me? Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? That perplexion, that confusion, really gave him a sense of discomfort.
And many of us, in fact all of us who are born Muslim, we do not appreciate the spiritual satisfaction that believing in God brings to our lives. We take it for granted. We don't understand because most of us who are born and raised Muslim, we don't understand what it means to live without God. How confusing it is, how perplexing it is, how empty it is. And the peace and comfort that religion brings, nothing else can bring that peace and comfort.
And Allah reminds our Prophet ﷺ, you were not spiritually fulfilled until I taught you theology, until I taught you the Qur'an. Allah says in the Qur'an:
You didn't know the truth.
You didn't know iman until we revealed the Qur'an to you. So, the first phrase can be translated as, have we not comforted your soul by answering these big questions of life. Who created you? What is the purpose of life? Where are you going? What is the meaning of life and death? These questions are far more important than anything else. And once you've answered them, life becomes meaningful, life becomes full of optimism. You have answered the biggest questions of life and we blessed you with that.
And every one of us shares in that comfort as well. We take it for granted because unless you have converted to Islam, those of us who are born in Islam, you don't even understand and appreciate what Islam brings to the table. You literally take it for granted. Can you imagine living without purpose? Can you imagine living without knowledge of why you're here? Where you came from? Where you're going? Can you imagine the spiritual bankruptcy of the soul in that manner? Most of us, alhamdulillah, we cannot. And this is our biggest blessing. Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ, don't take the negativity of this world and compare it to the positivity that Allah has given you. Because what Allah has given you is infinitely more precious. Knowing your God, knowing your religion, knowing your purpose is far more important than anything else. And we gifted you with that. Have we not given you the beauty of the message of God?
Second Verse: Lifting the Burden
And we have lifted the burden from your back that was causing you to feel heavy. There was a burden on you. There was a massive burden on you. And we have lifted it from you. Now you feel much better. What is this burden being referenced? A lot of opinions of our classical scholars, the opinion that I follow in this regard, and all of them are valid. The opinion that I follow, this is a reference to the fact the Prophet ﷺ felt a massive responsibility for guiding his people. And the fact that his people were not accepting the guidance made him feel guilty. He felt that he's not doing his job. That burden is mentioned many times in the Qur'an. In fact, Allah says in the Qur'an:
You might fall into depression because your people are not believing in the message of God. The burden was, my people are not believing, maybe I'm falling short, maybe I'm doing something wrong. And Allah revealed in the Qur'an:
Your job is to convey, our job is to judge. O Muslims, it is not our job to convert people, it is our job to convey the message. It is not our job to judge people, it is our job to preach the truth, and the rest is up to our Lord. Once the Prophet ﷺ was told this, he was told, don't worry, however people react to you, you have done your job and you have succeeded. And this is a comfort for us. We are not obliged and responsible for how people react to our message, that's not our job. But it is our job to convey our message with truth, with dignity, with courage. And then as Allah says, whoever wants to believe can believe, whoever wants to reject can reject.
So this was a burden lifted from him, the burden of responsibility, the burden of making sure everybody believe. No, it's not your burden, don't worry about it. Allah is saying, that's my job. Your job is to live the life of a believer. Your job is to bear witness and testimony. Your job, people should see the beauty of faith, the beauty of religion, the beauty of believing in Me through your actions. If they see that beauty, you've done your job, leave the rest to Me. So this is the burden that was lifted up, you don't have to worry about it. So Allah is saying, we have lifted this burden for you, you don't have to worry about it.
And that burden is lifted from us as well. We are also obliged to bear witness to the truth. We are obliged to teach our message, but we are not responsible at all for how people react to our message. Whoever wants to believe and convert, and we have alhamdulillah in this own masjid, so many people that have converted. Every week we have people that come to our faith, and they do so in spite of the negativity, they do so in spite of all the campaigns, they do so in spite of all of the political agenda, still people continue to flock. And this is the beauty of our faith. But we don't force them, we don't convince them, they come knocking on our doors, we do our job. How do we do our job? By living the life of a believer. By talking about our faith openly, we have nothing to hide. So Allah is saying, we lifted the burden from you, you're not responsible.
Third Verse: Elevated Status
And we have raised your legacy and ranks. Your legacy, we have raised it up. Meaning, your legacy will not be dictated by other human beings, even if they ridicule you, even if they make fun of you. Allah has raised your maqam, your status high. And you shall be honored, and you shall be respected, because your Lord has decreed that mankind will love you, no matter how many people reject you.
And factually speaking, wallahi factually speaking, no human being is more beloved to the entirety of mankind. Nobody has salawat prayed over more. No one's name is mentioned more on earth right now than our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. There is not a millisecond of existence except that not millions, hundreds of millions of people are sending their salawat, and making their prayers, and mentioning the Prophet ﷺ by name.
The Promise of Eternal Legacy
Never is the adhan called, except that, أَشْهَدُ أَن لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ. Never does somebody pray anywhere on planet earth, except that they're sending salawat upon the Prophet ﷺ. Not a single millisecond of existence, except that millions, nay, billions of people are showing their love and admiration. So Allah is reminding our Prophet ﷺ, don't judge your legacy by the haters. Don't judge your legacy by the haters. Allah will raise your ranks because you are a believer, you are a prophet, because we have chosen you.
So he's been given optimism in spite of the negativity. And through that we as well, our legacies are not dictated by politics. Our legacies are not dictated by the haters. Our ultimate legacies of life and death are written by our Lord and our Creator. And if we live good lives, if we live morally upright lives, if we live ethical lives, then our Lord will write our legacies for us. And we too shall live everlasting bliss because of our good deeds. Legacies are not built by media, they're not built by the lies of the haters. Actual legacy is created by Allah. And Allah blesses those whom He loves with such legacies.
So Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ through these three rhetorical questions. He is cheering him up, giving him optimism. Cheer up, you have Islam. And the responsibility of them is not on you. And your name and your legacy will be perpetual and eternal because of your good deeds. And those three messages not only apply to him, they apply to everybody who believes in him. They apply to all of us as well.
The Unshakeable Faith Within
Don't be bogged down by the negativity, the hatred, the lies and the slander. Because what you have within you is more precious than anything the world can give you. The izzah that comes from believing in God, the dignity that comes, the questions that are answered, the spiritual satisfaction of being a believer is worth all the negativity of this world. And nobody can shake your faith other than yourself. Nobody has access to your heart. They can't take that away. They can take our facilities away. They can shut down our janazah and funeral. They can do this and that. They cannot shake our faith in our God. And that is what is really the most precious thing to us.
There is nothing more precious and more satisfying than knowing who created you and worshipping that Creator. Be happy and rejoice in that spiritual satisfaction. And realize it's not your responsibility how people react. You live your life and you will succeed in the eyes of God. And your success is guaranteed if you live ethical lives. This is what this message is saying.
With Every Difficulty Comes Ease
Then our Lord says:
Indeed, with every difficulty, there shall be ease. And then the verse is repeated without the fa. With every difficulty, there shall be ease. What is the purpose of repetition? Our scholars have given multiple reasons. Of them, one of the interpretations, Allah is saying, in this world, with every difficulty, there will also be ease. And in the next world, with every difficulty, there will also be ease. Another interpretation, with every difficulty, before it shall be ease and after it shall be ease as well. Cheer up. Yet another interpretation, every time life becomes difficult, Allah will bless you with multiple blessings that you will take for granted, but they're still given to you.
In other words, don't just look at the negativity. Don't just look at what bogs you down. Don't just look at what distresses you. Realize, the positives will always outweigh the negatives. And that is why the yusr is double than the usr. How so? Read the verse again. فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا The usr, the difficulty has the alif-laam. If you know your basic Arabic grammar, that alif-laam, it means, with every single difficulty, shall be one ease. With the same difficulty, shall be another ease. Al-usr is twice, and yusr is without the alif-laam. Meaning, every time there is a difficult situation, Allah is saying, I guarantee that your good will always be more than the bad. Positives will always outweigh the negatives.
As one of the great scholars and sahaba and cousin of the Prophet of Ibn Abbas, he said, Never does Allah send down a calamity except that surrounding the calamity are at least two or multiple blessings as well. Allah will always bless you even as He tests you. Allah will always comfort you even as life becomes difficult. Because our Lord is a Lord of mercy. Our Lord is a Lord of compassion. And sometimes He does test us. And the purpose of testing is that we raise our ranks and pass the test. But even in the test, there shall be ease within the test. There shall be ease before the test. There shall be ease after the test.
The Command for Optimism
We Muslims are commanded to believe there's always light at the end of the tunnel. We Muslims are commanded that to believe no matter how pessimistic the world appears, we have to be optimistic. We always look at the positives. And we firmly believe that the future is brighter. Did not Allah say in the chapter right before this:
Tomorrow will always be better than yesterday. Tomorrow will always be better than yesterday. The future will always be better than the past. We are commanded to be optimistic. And commanded to know that our Lord will never test us with more than what we can bear.
Do not ever feel a sense of despair, a sense of loneliness, a sense of abandonment. No matter how difficult life becomes, look at the positive. And I swear to you, every one of you, go look at your own lives. Whenever Allah tests us in one manner, He blesses us in another. If some of us is being tested financially, perhaps it is a test financially. But you might have a loving family you take for granted. You might have a spouse and children that are solid and there for you. And so Allah is blessing you with extra love while you're being tested financially. Perhaps if somebody is going through a spousal situation, you are blessed with good health and you take that for granted. Allah is saying, if I'm gonna test you in one area, don't worry, I'll bless you with others. You will feel ease in others. So we are asked to look at the positives and realize the negatives are there for the test so that we pass the test. Allah will never simply test us with tests and tests and tests without any positives.
Never Give Up - Keep Standing
Then Allah says:
Even though there's only three words in this verse, one of our commentators, he said, this verse is one of the most powerful, succinct verses in the whole Quran. It is one of the most profound verses in spite of the fact that it's only three words. And there's at least, no exaggeration, 15 interpretations. I don't have time to get into all of them today. But in a nutshell, the main interpretations are, فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ When you finish, when you're fariq, when you have time, فَانصَبْ, stand up again. That's the main interpretation. Meaning, the first interpretation, never give up. Never give up. When you finish one plan, move on to another plan. If plan A fails, move on to plan B. Plan B fails, move on to plan C. Keep on trying, never ever give up. When you finish, stand up and try again.
Our Lord is telling us, our success will be judged not on the result but on the effort. As long as we put in the effort, as long as we keep on trying, we will never fail in the eyes of Allah. When we finish one plan, it doesn't work, go back to the drawing board and try again, and again, and again, and again. And we continue to try until we meet our Lord. And if we die while meeting our Lord, if we die, keep on trying to do what we're doing. Even if the world thinks we haven't succeeded, we have succeeded because we never gave up. We are never allowed to give up. Keep on trying, فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانصَبْ. That's one interpretation.
Another interpretation, and again, these are all complementary, there's no contradiction. When you finish your chores and plans, when you finish preaching and teaching, when you finish plan A, when you finish doing the tactical things necessary because we all have to have the logistics. How do we go about doing what we're doing? Whether it's earning our money, whether it's taking care of our kids, whether it's defending our mosque from the calumnies and lies. When you finish doing your logistical chores, then stand up in prayer. And don't forget, you also have a spiritual side as well. That's what our faith teaches us.
Combining Worldly Action with Spiritual Connection
We do what we need to do for this world, and we pray to Allah to bless us in those efforts. Both are needed. Our religion is a religion that combines the worldly with the afterlife. It combines between doing the best for this world while putting our trust in our Lord. So when you finish doing your deeds for the day, go back home and stand in prayer. That is the second interpretation. Never forget, you need prayer, you need dua, you need salah, you need to worship Allah. And these are the two main interpretations that are complementary to each other. Number one, never give up. Keep on trying different things, and do not despair. And number two, combine between your worldly tactics, and between praying to Allah, you will need both of them.
And this is an important message of Muslims. All too often we think, Allah will help us if we just come to the mosque and pray. That's not what we learn from the seerah. That's not what we learn from the life of our Prophet ﷺ. You have to do you, you have to go out, you have to be active, you have to do what needs to be done. And then you put your trust in Allah as the Prophet ﷺ famously remarked to the man who came and said, should I tie my camel at night so that it doesn't run away? Or should I go to sleep and put my trust in Allah that Allah will take care of my camel? You all know what he said. He said, tie your camel and also put your trust in God. This is our philosophy. We tie our camel, we do what needs to be done, and we also pray to Allah.
Your Ultimate Goal: Your Lord
And then the last verse in this surah:
Powerful verse, all Muslims. Powerful verse. وَإِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَارْغَبْ Make your desire, make your ultimate goal, your Lord. Your ultimate goal, your ultimate happiness, your ultimate destination, do not link it to this world. Because we are not here in this world forever. We will return to our Lord. And if we prioritize Him, and if we aim for His pleasure, then this world can never disappoint us.
Our hearts need to be attached to the next life, even as we live in this world. Our ultimate success and failure is not contingent upon the outcome of this dunya and this world. Our ultimate failure is if we turn our backs from our Lord and do not worship Him. And our ultimate success is if our Lord is happy with us and pleased with what we have done. And so, do not attach your hopes, your hearts, your desires to anything of this world as the ultimate goal. وَإِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَارْغَبْ Put your ultimate hope in your Creator, and you will never ever be disillusioned. You will always be optimistic.
The Liberation of True Faith
That is the beauty of our faith. If you truly understand what it means, then you will be liberated from the shackles of this world. Nothing of this world will give you problems. You will not feel down and depressed because you will understand victory doesn't depend on the hands of other people. It is between you and your Lord. Nobody can come between you and your victory other than yourself and your own waswasa and your own fallings and misgivings. If you are firm in your faith and you live an ethical life and you believe in your Lord, you shall be victorious in His eyes even if this world doesn't understand that. And this is what this surah teaches us. And we learn from the seerah. After the surah was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ found great comfort and solace.
And that feeling of sadness never came back to him because of this surah. This surah is a surah of optimism. It is a surah of great courage. It teaches us to always look at the bright side and never lose hope in our Lord. And it is a message that should resonate with everyone of us, especially in light of what is happening. I ask Allah to bless us with and through the Qur'an and may He make us of those whose verses they understand and applies halal and haram throughout our lifespan. I ask Allah's forgiveness. You as well ask Him for He is the Ghafoor and the Rahman.
الحمد لله. All praise is due to Allah, the One and the Unique. He is whom we worship and it is His blessings that we seek. He is the Lord of the oppressed and He hears the prayer of the weak.
Our Responsibility as Muslims
As to what follows, dear Muslims, the message that I have been giving to you consistently for the last however many years I've been preaching here is always the same. We have an ethical and moral and religious responsibility to demonstrate the beauty of our faith in the society that we live in. And now we have the political responsibility as well. This is a constant message you will hear from me and from all the preachers and teachers of Islam.
You cannot be ashamed of your faith. You cannot hide your faith. There's nothing to be ashamed of. Be proud of being a Muslim. Thank Allah for having been guided to this faith. And then show, not through your teaching, through your actions what it means to be a believer. People will judge you based upon your actions more than your speech. Demonstrate your honesty. Demonstrate your compassion. Demonstrate who you are because when they see you, they will think you are a representative of Islam even if you don't consider yourself to be representative.
You Are Already a Representative
Fact of the matter is every one of you is already assumed to be representative. You didn't choose that position. You weren't nominated for it. Whether you like it or not, in the eyes of your colleagues, in the eyes of your neighbors, everything you do, it will be assessed, not based upon your name, unfortunately based upon your faith. I wish that weren't the case, but it is the case. And by the way, this is the ethical reality as well. Forget what other people say. We as Muslims should live our lives in accordance with Allah's commandments anyway.
So especially in light of what is going on, the negativity, the slanders, the stereotypes. I ask you bluntly and boldly, how will those stereotypes be cleared up? People are not listening to my sermon. They don't come to the masjid to listen to khutbas. They are interacting with the broader Muslim community. That's you. You represent Islam in your neighborhoods and offices, not me. You represent our Prophet ﷺ wherever you go, not me.
For the Sake of Future Generations
So understand you have an ethical, a moral, a religious, and now a political responsibility. For the sake of Allah, then for the sake of yourselves, and then frankly for the sake of your children, your grandchildren after you. Do you want your children to live in fear? Do you want your grandchildren to be stigmatized? Do you want them to cower under all of these lies and be ashamed of their faith? Of course not.
So then why don't we understand the only way to dispel lies is by acting in accordance with our truth. You and I, we all know we have nothing to hide. والله, we have nothing to hide. All that they say about us is based upon their misunderstanding. How will that misunderstanding be cleared if every one of us is ashamed, we change our names, we hide our identity, we don't talk about who we are. No.
Stand with Courage and Dignity
Stop being ashamed of who you are. And push back gently with courage, with dignity at any false narrative you hear. And sometimes you'll have to do your own research. You don't even know, sometimes don't know aspects of your own faith. No problem. Come and ask, come and learn. And then when you find out the truth, preach it in a manner that will إن شاء الله be faithful to who you are, without any embarrassment, without any accommodation to falsehood. No. We preach the truth and we live up to it and understand, dear Muslims, that if we do so, then إن شاء الله تعالى, we have done what is required of us.
Focus on Your Effort, Not the Results
Go back to this surah. You are not required to see how they react. You will not be judged by what they respond to. You will be judged by what you have done. So my message and advice to all of you, go back to this surah today, understand it in light of the seerah, then understand it in light of our own circumstance. Live up to this reality.
Be thankful to Allah that we have, الحمد لله, Islam. We believe in our Lord. Be thankful to Allah, He will not judge us based upon our result, but based upon our effort. Be thankful to Allah that our legacies and our ultimate success is not going to be contingent upon what people do. It will be only dependent on our Lord.
And once you understand this, then realize, ultimate failure and success is not gonna be dictated in this world. It will be dictated in the hereafter. You do the best you can and you will pass in the exam of Allah and that is the most important passing.